Refine
Year of Publication
- 1997 (34) (remove)
Document Type
- Part of a Book (13)
- Working Paper (5)
- Peer-Reviewed Article (4)
- Contribution to Periodical (4)
- Report (4)
- Conference Object (3)
- Book (1)
Language
- English (34) (remove)
Division
- Präsidialbereich (3)
Limited knowledge and the precautionary principle : on the feasibility of environmental politics
(1997)
Five years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the hesitancy of developed countries is turning out to be the main impediment to implementing an effective policy for sustainable development. Alongside the further development of international environmental regimes, setting up national action plans is necessary to close the action-gap in the North. However, this can only succeed if the action plans include binding objectives that can be monitored and evaluated. Current national strategies for sustainable development only meet this criterion in exceptional cases; in most cases only qualitatively and legally nonbinding objectives are included. In the present paper, a suggestion for a cluster of environmental policy targets is put forth, which - using Germany as an example - establishes the sustainability concept at the national level. Particular emphasis is placed on the normative dimension of target setting.
China and climate change
(1997)
Sustainable development
(1997)
Why speed matters
(1997)
This paper takes a look at the development of freight transport and its further perspectives in the light of environmental sustainability. It clearly challenges the traditional view that further growth in freight transport is indispensable whatever stage of economic development an individual economy has achieved. Moreover it suggests measures to be taken into consideration in sectors other than the transport sector which may help to break the trend of continuing freight transport growth. Current developments of freight transport volume and modal split are rather counterproductive as regards curbing the unwanted environmental impacts. As growth in volume is a major contributing factor for most adverse effects caused, a substantial decoupling of economic growth and freight transport would be extremely helpful. While freight transport activity is almost entirely derived demand there can be no sufficient solution for the resulting environmental problems within the sector itself. Therefore, it is necessary to examine potentials for reducing demand for freight transport in all sectors of the economy. Contrasting to the widely held view that freight transport is in general an inevitable prerequisite of economic development, there are potentials for reducing the freight intensity of the economy which could be far more exploited. Such potentials are increasing the share of regional production, slowing down the metabolism of materials in the economy, and substituting transfer of information for transport of physical products. While each of these potentials on its own may appear to offer limited effects, a proper combination might yield substantial results. The presented preliminary ideas suggest that the notion of everlasting freight transport growth is misleading and hint at the necessity for further research.
The issue or concept of "sustainable development" entered onto the public and political agenda only relatively recently, and, five years after signing Agenda 21, perceptions of it are still ambiguous. A review of organisational adjustments and of German communications to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development shows that the German government's level of commitment to Agenda 21 is still low. This view is supported by an assessment of developments, and the Government's poor performance so far, in three institutional indicators. However, there is evidence that some incremental steps towards a sustainability transition are being taken as in some areas of business and industry and local government attitudes are begining to change. In addition, awareness of sustainable development is being raised by the efforts of non‐governmental organisations and the scientific community. Generally though, the lack of institutional reorganisation is the major obstacle to a German sustainability transition. This is an expression of the generally low priority of environmental and global development issues in the aftermath of German unification and the related economic and social problems. The traditional economic paradigm where economic growth is believed to be the precondition for welfare prevails and is considered by a majority of decision‐makers not to be compatible with the sustainability transition.
Germany
(1997)
Green taxes come to Europe
(1997)
Global climate
(1997)